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Yume Nikki (2004)

Kikiyama

PC (Microsoft Windows) · Web Browser

3.89 from 321 ratings

1385 members have it in their collection · 34 playing now · 676 backlogged · 123 wish listed

How long? Main story 4h · with extras 3h (from 5 logged playthroughs)

Yume Nikki is a 32-Bit freeware game created by Kikiyama, a Japanese solo game designer. The game was made using RPGMaker 2003. The game is regarded as one of the most original applications of RPGMaker 2003, and the start of a possible new genre of games. "Yume Nikki" means "Dream Diary" in Japanese, and the game follows a young girl … Read more
Yume Nikki is a 32-Bit freeware game created by Kikiyama, a Japanese solo game designer. The game was made using RPGMaker 2003. The game is regarded as one of the most original applications of RPGMaker 2003, and the start of a possible new genre of games. "Yume Nikki" means "Dream Diary" in Japanese, and the game follows a young girl named Madotsuki as she dreams. The goal is to seek out and acquire all 24 'Effects'. The game otherwise has no plot, and nearly the entire game is left up to speculation. Read less
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Details

Developers
Kikiyama
Publishers
DeNA Co., Ltd., PLAYISM
Genres
Adventure, Indie
Themes
Horror
Series
Yume Nikki
Steam
View on Steam

Release dates

  • Jun 26, 2004 (Worldwide) PC (Microsoft Windows)
  • Jul 26, 2016 (Worldwide) Web Browser

Also available on

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Featured in lists

Essential Indies by Human_Traffic · 50 games · 6
bideo games ive played (and finished) by whosduster · 108 games · 3

Rating distribution

5 stars
116
4 stars
113
3 stars
52
2 stars
22
1 star
18
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Community All Reviews Statuses

olivania

Status olivania May 7, 2025

Everything about this game is just so surreal and bizarre, it makes you wonder about what it all means. It's peaceful. It's nice. Don't believe the tags and reviews calling this a horror game, that's just not the case. Yume Nikki is just a weird waltz through a psychological dreamscape. Finding everything it has to offer could take you forever, …

Read more

Everything about this game is just so surreal and bizarre, it makes you wonder about what it all means. It's peaceful. It's nice. Don't believe the tags and reviews calling this a horror game, that's just not the case. Yume Nikki is just a weird waltz through a psychological dreamscape. Finding everything it has to offer could take you forever, and that's part of the fun of it. Explore. Go at your own pace.

Read less
0 Comment Permalink
MistRain

Review MistRain 3/5 · Aug 24, 2024

Weird, historical piece.

The vibes are nice and the atmosphere is pretty neat! I love the themes and ideas! As an interactive experience though? Not for me, I need more handholding to enjoy and feel like my time is well spent.

4 Comment
tylerisrandom

Review tylerisrandom 3/5 · Jan 21, 2024

I'm glad to have finally played Yume Nikki. It's a unique, mysterious, special experience. I can see why it's entranced so many.

I do think its impact for me was dulled somewhat by my prior playthroughs of EarthBound and Undertale. It owes a lot to the former, and I prefer the latter. But I tried my best to adopt …

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I'm glad to have finally played Yume Nikki. It's a unique, mysterious, special experience. I can see why it's entranced so many.

I do think its impact for me was dulled somewhat by my prior playthroughs of EarthBound and Undertale. It owes a lot to the former, and I prefer the latter. But I tried my best to adopt a mid-to-late-aughts mindset throughout.

Read less
2 Comment
thevioletcow

Review thevioletcow 4/5 · Jun 7, 2022

Just Go Play It

It's free! But more than that, it's so simple and easy to check out. 30 minutes of curiosity with this game will get you more than most other games. I highly recommend trying it out for a bit. Don't even check out a video, just have a sit with it.

2 Comment
CountDraculaGaming

Review CountDraculaGaming 5/5 · Nov 6, 2021

Sometimes I think about the whole "arty indie platformer where everything is a veiled metaphor for depression or trauma" genre that this game's sequel/spiritual successor/whatever belongs to, and then I think about how kikiyama did everything those games were trying to do but better 6 years before Limbo even came out and then completely disappeared off the face of the …

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Sometimes I think about the whole "arty indie platformer where everything is a veiled metaphor for depression or trauma" genre that this game's sequel/spiritual successor/whatever belongs to, and then I think about how kikiyama did everything those games were trying to do but better 6 years before Limbo even came out and then completely disappeared off the face of the earth. Proof that you can put a scene of a witch flying on a broom over funky music in a game with no dialogue and make it more emotionally potent than any Hollywood film ever released. Literally the only work of fiction ever in the last five years to give me nightmares. You couldn't ever do better than this no matter what.

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1 Comment
sirmiq

Review sirmiq 5/5 · Feb 27, 2016

on my wall i have the prints of some film photographs i took when i was dabbling in that medium. one of them shows a pixel-drawn image of a little girl in witch regalia flying a broom over a cityscape. it's a photograph of yume nikki as i was playing it one day in, i guess, 2010. there is a …

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on my wall i have the prints of some film photographs i took when i was dabbling in that medium. one of them shows a pixel-drawn image of a little girl in witch regalia flying a broom over a cityscape. it's a photograph of yume nikki as i was playing it one day in, i guess, 2010. there is a horizontal bar of glitchy distortion over the screen. this is the result of me constantly hoisting the laptop up to my bed by the screen. i lived in my bed with my laptop, but it was a small bed, only a single, so to sleep i had to place it on the floor beside the bed. the constant strain on the connectors of picking it up and putting it down holding only the screen part eventually caused these strange glitches. the horizontal bar can be seen in this photograph:

to this day i live in my bed with my laptop, although the necessity of a job to keep myself fed gets in the way for 9 hours of the day. i now have a double bed to myself, so the laptop doesn't have to leave the mattress. it stays with me. on a good few nights, i've slept with one of kikiyama's tracks from Yume Nikki on loop. i think i'll share madotsuki's fate.

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1 Comment
SuperEffective

Status SuperEffective Jun 12, 2015

Creepy! I am enjoying the design and pace of the game, although I'm curious to see what happens at the "end" (is there really an end?).

0 Comment Permalink